EBU Annual Report 2020-2021

2020-2021 ANNUAL REPORT

ABOUT THE EBU

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is the world’s foremost alliance of public service media (PSM). Our mission is to make PSM indispensable.

We represent 115 media organizations in 56 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and have an additional 31 Associates in Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas.

Our Members operate nearly 2,000 television and radio channels alongside numerous online platforms. Together, they reach audiences of more than one billion people around the world, broadcasting in almost 160 languages.

We strive to secure a sustainable future for public service media, provide our Members with world-class content from news to sports and music, and build on our founding ethos of solidarity and co-operation to create a centre for learning and sharing.

Our subsidiary, Eurovision Services, aims to be the first-choice media services provider, offering new, better and different ways to simply, efficiently and seamlessly access and deliver content and services.

We have offices in Brussels, Rome, Dubai, Madrid, Moscow, New York, Washington DC, Singapore and Beijing. Our headquarters are in Geneva.

Discover more about the EBU at www.ebu.ch

PRESIDENT’S WELCOME MESSAGE

Delphine Ernotte Cunci Chair of the Executive Board/President of the EBU

I’m very honoured to be the first woman to be elected President of the EBU. Times are changing and I hope to seize this momentum for change to lead the Union towards emerging trends in the cultural, social and economic spheres.

As our societies continue to adapt and respond to an unprecedented crisis, public service media have been there to accompany them and listen to their needs, such as stepping in for educational purposes, supporting the cultural industries and, more than ever, defending the right to free and trustworthy news for all.

As the digital space has grown in our daily lives, the EBU is offering tools, content and international collaborations to support Members in sharing and creating high-end productions. We’re also strongly involved in sketching the future of a strong European audiovisual market.

The crisis has galvanized our commitment to care for future generations, young audiences, by finding innovative ways to access trusted news and get a clear and fair picture of the world every day.

Our ambition is to stand for this clear and fair picture and defend the fundamental values of the EBU: Universality –Independence – Excellence – Diversity –Accountability and Innovation

DIRECTOR GENERAL FOREWORD

Noel Curran Director General, EBU

Our Director General Noel Curran looks back on an unprecedented year for the EBU. A difficult year, but also a very rewarding one, which has seen the EBU develop even closer relationships with its

Members and respond more effectively to their needs. It has also provided the opportunity to reaffirm the importance of public service media to society. Watch this foreword online.

The EBU is the world’s leading alliance of public service media (PSM).

We bring broadcasters together to share content, knowledge and inspiration.

We believe strong PSM is at the heart of democratic societies and are committed to championing and upholding its value at both a national and international level.

STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM

Enabling citizens everywhere to better understand the world in which they live is crucial for democratic societies and is why Public Service Journalism is a strategic initiative. At a time when disinformation and populism are growing, we support our Members with vital research, and services that enable them to deliver trusted, factual and independent journalism. In January 2021, we announced that 10 Members had joined our initiative to

Our Strategic Initiatives address topics that are critical to the future of public service media. These crossdepartmental action plans include multiple services, projects and activities to support our Members.

share online content directly to audiences. Our 2020 News Report explored the reaction and reinvention of public service news as it rose to the challenge of COVID-19. And our News managers speak regularly at high profile events to promote PSJ.

CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY

Demonstrating the value of public service media is more important than ever. To help our Members in their advocacy work, we launched a new range of tools to demonstrate the Value of Public Service Media. This included an executive guide to help senior managers effectively launch their organization’s value journey; casebooks looking at young

audiences, democracy and the creative industries; and a series of video interviews with Member DGs who are already successfully measuring the impact they have on society. We want to highlight the significant difference PSM makes to people’s lives – not just during a crisis but every day.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

COVID-19 has underlined the imperative for fast, effective digital transformation and our Digital Transformation Initiative has been developing a portfolio of new services to help Members drive their own transformation programmes and build stronger organizations fit for the digital future. The Digital Readiness Review

is a fast, targeted, and agile service which provides quick, actionable results and recommendations, and the Transformation Peer Review delivers deep organizational analysis and insights. With pilots completed, the plan is to scale up the services in the year ahead. The DTI Casebook provides a framework for change, demonstrating through 18 case studies what transformation looks and feels like at the operational level for PSM.

AI AND DATA INITIATIVE

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data are central themes for PSM – especially as they work towards strengthening and personalizing their relationships with audiences. Last year, we published ‘AI and Data Initiative 2020: Embracing Change’ –a practical guide to supporting PSM values with AI and data, featuring Member case studies. We ran a series of events, workshops and learning sessions to share knowledge and best practice as well as working with

Members to catalogue all the available AI tools against fake news. And we worked with external partners such as the OSCE to ensure the voice of PSM is heard when discussing critical issues like AI and freedom of expression.

YOUNG AUDIENCES

Children and young adults are our future yet, for PSM, connecting with this group can be challenging. We have provided expertise and content to our Members in their offers for these age groups and facilitated Children’s Exchanges with drama, documentary and pre-school series. Our Youth Report: What Works? is a comprehensive blend of strategic recommendations and success stories for engaging with young people. Our #SayHi campaign – EBU Kids International Friendship Initiative – created a song and dance symbolizing inclusion and friendship, for kids worldwide to join at the same time, on the same day. Thirteen broadcasters joined the event to say a resounding ‘no’ to bullying!

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are all core values of PSM and, to reflect the need for more accurate representation both in the workforce and on-air, the EBU have now made the topic a Strategic Initiative (looking at gender, age, disability, sexual orientation and race). We’ve created a new DEI Steering Group to help address the challenges and reimagine innovative solutions to better balanced organizations. Events, workshops and reports are helping Members learn from the successes of their peers and the wider industry. By working together, across the organization, on events like International Women’s Day we will continue to raise awareness of this core topic and drive change in the workplace to make our organizations stronger and our content even more relevant for all audiences.

EUROPEAN LEGAL & POLICY

ONLINE PLATFORMS –DSA & DMA

We’re working to have PSM’s view heard on the EU’s landmark online platform rules - the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA). Delphine Ernotte joined key members of the European Parliament at an EBU event on successful DSA and DMA outcomes and spoke extensively about the rules in interviews with the Financial

As the Voice of PSM, we work throughout the year to safeguard independent broadcasting, sustainable funding and the best possible legal and technological framework for our Members.

LEGAL & POLICY IN NUMBERS

Times and Politico. We’ve organized meetings with policy makers, contributed to the European Commission’s public consultation, worked

with other broadcast media associations on joint statements and issued our own position papers.

We will continue to coordinate a campaign alongside our Members and fellow media players.

MEDIA FREEDOM

We are vocal in our efforts to improve new EU policies impacting on media freedom, the safety of journalists and disinformation. Our activities include: broad communication of our views on the European Democracy Action Plan; our work with seven other media and journalist organizations to recommend how the EU’s e-evidence proposal can succeed without endangering media freedom and fundamental rights; and the organization of an event with WHO and the European Commission about media’s role in combatting COVID-19 disinformation.

AN EVOLVING POLICY TEAM

The Brussels policy team, under the new leadership of Wouter Gekiere, has been reinforced to ensure coverage of all relevant initiatives kicked off by the European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen. A policy-focused Twitter feed has been launched - @EBU_Policy - and the latest policy points-of-view and position papers are featured on the dedicated Legal & Policy web page.

MEMBER SUPPORT

NATIONAL CAMPAIGNING

Over the last 12 months, the political and economic threats to PSM have been greater than ever. We have been vocal on both a national and international stage –from Slovenia to Belarus and the Czech Republic -

campaigning for sustainable, independent media. We’ve also seen a worrying increase in hostility and even violence levelled against journalists and campaigned alongside partners to protect the media so they continue to provide a vital service to citizens in these critical times.

KEEP MEDIA GOOD

We’ve worked to showcase the extraordinary output from our Members during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through events, media relations and social media, we’ve highlighted the many ways in which they have kept audiences informed, educated and entertained. Our Keep Media Good films have been shared by over 30 Members and viewed over 10 million times – showing the work done by PSM in the areas of news, children’s education and entertainment.

PARTNERSHIP WORKING

We’re working closely with partner organizations to support PSM Members in Central and Eastern Europe. Following the success of the EU-funded Technical Assistance to PSM in the Western Balkans project, a further grant of EUR 1.5 million was approved to be implemented by a consortium

including the EBU, EFJ, IFJ, ERNO, BIRN and ORF.

The second phase will build on implementing the Regional Common Principles on Funding and Governance, improving editorial guidelines and best practices in production, investigative journalism, youth programmes and archiving. We’re also working with the OSCE, thanks to European Commission funding, to strengthen the capabilities of RTSH journalists in Albania.

MEMBER RELATIONS

Last year saw an expansion and restructuring of the Member Relations service as part of the EBU’s continuing objective to reinforce effectiveness and responsiveness to Members. In addition to structuring engagement and defending Members in need, Member Relations is leading an EBUwide effort to centralise quantitative and qualitative data on how each Member interacts with the EBU across content, advocacy, intelligence, networking and learning. This new initiative will help guide on areas where we can further improve our support to each Member according to its priorities and strategy.

HUB OF KNOWLEDGE, EXPERTISE AND TRAINING

TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

CLOUD AND REMOTE PRODUCTION

Restrictions on physical productions due to COVID-19 have massively accelerated the industry’s move towards cloud-based and hybrid solutions that support remote (live) media creation and can be easily scaled. We have set up dedicated working groups and forums for Members to facilitate sharing and knowledge transfer. We also ran a series of roundtables and

Over the past year, we’ve continued to provide expertise and knowledge to help our Members thrive and develop in the fast-moving media landscape.

workshops to look at available solutions and technologies to help Members make choices. And we facilitated collaborative field trials of relevant technologies with Members and the industry, such as a series of remote production trials at Biathlon events in early 2021.

SPECTRUM, WRC-23 PREPARATIONS

We represent our Members interests at the negotiating tables of World Radiocommunication Conferences, which globally coordinate the use of wireless spectrum and in turn have an impact on broadcast and distribution platforms used by PSM. While the International Telecommunication Union’s next WRC won’t be held until 2023, the negotiations have

already started. Our experts and Member working groups are paying particular attention to the future of the UHF band – which is used for terrestrial broadcast but is also of interest to mobile network operators –to find solutions that meet our Members’ current and future needs.

EUROVOX AND PEACH

We have supported further deployments of our PEACH and EuroVOX solutions, which now also form the backbone of our new news service offerings. Co-developed with Members, the EuroVOX toolkit for machine-based language services offers an open API that allows organizations to easily leverage any of the industry-leading speech-totext engines.

In addition, the source code of the EuroVOX user interface is now freely available to Members. We’ve also unlocked an entirely new range of use-cases for media organizations with our PEACH personalisation and recommendation suite by adding the ability to generate recommendations based on the contents of a live programme.

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

MIS REPORTS

Last year, our Media Intelligence Service published published over 100 publications (reports, infographics, slide decks and datasets) including 7 COVID-19 specific reports. Almost 1,000 different organizations downloaded reports on popular topics including the funding of PSM, trust in media and the licence fee. A special report on the economic impact of public radio’s music activities showed they had a massive financial impact of EURO 3.1 billion and

supported more than 50,000 jobs in Europe in total.

ONLINE KNOWLEDGE HUB

Our new online Knowledge Hub aims to bring together all our key learnings - including the latest research, guides and video – on trending and market-relevant topics from 5G and advertising to young audiences. It allows Members to explore the issues and gain insights on the most important challenges and opportunities for PSM. Made for and by the EBU community, the site has

had over 20,000 page views since it launched in November and we’ll be growing the content over the coming year.

NEWS2KNOW

Our News2Know database provides Members with updates on the latest media trends and policy or regulatory changes. Subscribers to its opt-in service grew by over 12% in 2020 to cover 114 companies in 62 countries. Over 7,500 news items, along with 145 official documents and position papers, were made available to Members last year. Special attention was paid to the impact of the pandemic on the media sector enabling others to quickly compile reports for their own constituents.

EBU ACADEMY

In 2020, the EBU Academy responded rapidly to the pandemic with new learning formats and moved 87% of their courses online.

EBU ACADEMY IN NUMBERS

EUROVISION SPORT

DIGITAL INNOVATIONS

Continuing COVID restrictions have accelerated technological innovations for both Eurovision Sport and our Members. New remote technology products have enabled broadcasters to maintain unilateral production even with no staff on the ground at events. For example, for the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun, we employed a hybrid cloudbased platform utilising SRT technology to distribute streaming content; created

We have helped our Members increase the breadth, depth, and quality of their programming by providing them with access to a wide range of world-class content.

a virtual Media Centre and hosted a cloud-based remote mixed zone system. We also trialled a new OTT pilot using a cloud-based live mixer.

INCLUSIVITY

We believe sport should be for all and make it our mission to ensure our output is diverse and inclusive. Gender equality in sport has been a priority for us in recent years and is seen as an important issue by 92% of our Members. This year, we published a new Women in Sport handbook to help drive change and organized a series of workshops and trainings with our Members. We also signed a new partnership with the Special Olympics to help bring coverage of athletes with intellectual disabilities to a wider audience.

CLIMATE INITIATIVES

It is important that PSM leads the way in terms of sustainability and the major environmental challenges facing society today. To this end, Eurovision Sport has joined albert – an authority on environmental sustainability for film and TV. Together with our Members, we hope to contribute to the development of a carbonneutral production concept. We have also joined the UNFCCC’s Sports for Climate Action initiative as a signatory to the Sports for Climate Action Framework – not only do we want to develop our own sustainability roadmap but we can also use the power of sport to inspire and educate audiences about this important issue.

NEWS AND SPORTS EDITS 101 / DAY AVERAGE

HOURS OF LIVE 19 HOURS / DAY AVERAGE

EUROVISION NEWS

NEWS EXCHANGE

To ensure public service newsrooms always have access to a diverse range of news items provided by trusted sources, we draw on the newsgathering resources of more than 70 EBU Members and partners worldwide. The introduction of three live channels has generated a significant increase in live contributions and usage.

19,418

EDITS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS 53 / DAY AVERAGE

MORE THAN 40 DATA JOURNALISM ITEMS AND CLEAN DATASETS

EUROVISION SOCIAL NEWSWIRE DISCOVERED, VERIFIED AND CLEARED 14,000 ITEMS FOR MEMBERS

Additionally, our Social Newswire provides verified eyewitness media in real time to Members for use on all platforms. To provide more transparency, the Eyewitness Media Principles and Guidelines have been made publicly available.

NEWS STRATEGY & DEVELOPMENT

In January 2021, we announced an innovative new service that enables the sharing of multilingual, high-quality news so that editors worldwide can target their own audiences with relevant content from other Members. As part of this project we rolled out a news monitoring tool which allows Members to read/view published online news from other Members in a range of languages. We are a supporting partner in the Journalism Trust Initiative, a self-regulatory media initiative that promotes compliance with professional standards. And we are a founding member of the Trusted News Initiative (TNI), an industry group working to counter disinformation.

NEWS EVENTS & CONTENT

News Events provides Members with high-quality and cost-effective broadcast and digital news services. In 2020, the service transformed its business model and operations to deliver remote and hybrid events including the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Saudi Arabia. Field operations included the US Presidential Election – conducted with full COVID-19 safety precautions. And we entered a substantial consultancy agreement with Member RTP to support them as host broadcaster for Portugal’s EU Presidency. The Radio News team’s new audio exchange platform – developed in the first wave of COVID-19 – enables Members to share content, including audio from major news events, interviews, podcasts and documentaries.

EURORADIO

JOINT EVENTS

In a year that devastated live music, we offered unique music events. The first-ever radio recording of Max Richter’s VOICES by BBC Radio 3 coincided with UN Human Rights Day and was broadcast by 40 Member radio stations. We celebrated UNESCO World Environment Day with a WDR concert featuring natureinspired works by Tan Dun and Beethoven. The recording of ‘Idiot Prayer (Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace)’ was made available exclusively to our radio stations two weeks before its commercial release, with an interview with Irish cinematographer Robbie Ryan. Twenty-four Members made specials with the material.

CELEBRATING OUR ARCHIVES

The importance of the rich archival content held by our Members – concerts, festivals, spoken-word features - was particularly relevant during the pandemic, with live events postponed. Content could be shared via new formats and platforms to audiences in lockdown. In March, we marked the 30th anniversary of R.E.M.’s ‘Out of Time’ by unearthing a semi-acoustic radio session recorded at NDR for the album’s 1991 promo tour. Twenty radio stations broadcast the session. Last December, Dave Brubeck @100 was a worldwide celebration of the great jazz composer and pianist with 18 broadcasters sharing their Brubeck archives with listeners across Europe.

EURORADIO MUSIC EXCHANGE IN NUMBERS

IP DISTRIBUTION AND COORDINATION

In January 2021, the network delivering our Music Exchange concerts switched from satellite to the internet and connected 48 EBU Members for the exchange of live radio concerts – a system that will be extended to all EBU news radio outlets in the coming months. The new system offers more flexibility, is costeffective and futureproof. The technical coordination role of live Euroradio transmissions has been awarded to ARDSternpunkt in Frankfurt for five years, part of a broader mission of delivering more efficient and cost-effective solutions.

TV & LIVE EVENTS

CONTENT EXCHANGE

Building on the success of the EBU Content Appeal which was developed in response to programme shortages arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, we established a framework for the ongoing exchange of content among our Members: the Eurovision TV Programme Exchange. This new ‘edition’ allows our broadcasters to share TV content across a range of genres and has seen over 100 programme items submitted by 20 Member organizations, totalling 250 programme hours.

DRAMA

High-impact TV drama is vital to PSM audiences, particularly young audiences. The imperative for our Members is to offer high-quality drama at a time when subscription video-on-demand players are bringing substantial budgets and agile commissioning into play. Our drama initiative identifies opportunities for collaborations and facilitates access to quality content by fostering co-production among Members as a primary source of financing. It also provides a hub of knowledge for the fiction community and, through our comprehensive Drama and Public Service TV report, has published business models for drama co-pros and recommendations for what works.

CO-PRODUCTIONS

The benefits of co-productions include production efficiency, audience scaling, editorial diversity and increased control of rights – all key reasons why co-pros are now a key strategic focus for the EBU. We have recently offered 10 co-production pitching opportunities to Members, two have been deliveredBack from the Brink (Factual/ Natural History) from RTE and New European Songbook (Performing Arts) from ORF. We anticipate future opportunities increasing across genre groups including drama and factual/documentary.

TV CO-PRODUCTIONS IN NUMBERS

NETWORKING AND ALLIANCES FACILITATOR

INSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS

We’ve strengthened our relationships with international organizations working to defend media freedom and diversity. For example, we are active members of the Council of Europe’s Platform for the Protection of Journalists and participate in regular discussions on platform policy. We collaborate frequently with the OSCE on issues from the safety of journalists to AI and ethics.

One of our most important roles is to create communities to share learnings and to facilitate and broker relations as a collective with the wider industry, global players, and other broadcast partners.

And we work closely with UNESCO around key topics include press freedom, education and media literacy.

INDUSTRY PARTNER

We work in closer partnership with the technology industry. Last year, SMPTE, one of the world’s most influential standards organizations, elected the EBU’s Hans Hoffmann as President. The 5G-MAG consortium, created and led by the EBU, includes more than 40 organizations that collaborate on 5G technology and standardization. In 2020, together with several

Members, R&D organizations, academic institutions and industry players, we initiated 5G-RECORDS, an EU-funded project to shape an architecture that optimally orchestrates 5G connectivity in professional content production. And, under the umbrella of the IBC Accelerator project, we’ve commenced R&D work on a workflow using off-theshelf equipment to give broadcasters an easier way to create Mixed Reality elements for their productions, both in the studio and remotely.

FAANGS

By working together, we can have real impact in our discussions with the FAANGS. Last year, we organized eight exclusive sessions for Members with Facebook, Google, YouTube, Spotify, Twitch and TikTok to better understand their products and strategies. 52 Member organizations participated in at least one session. We provided joint Member feedback on metadata to Google to improve the discoverability of TV content; we established new strategic

contacts with Amazon for FireTV and Alexa and discussed with Spotify how Members can get better data on their podcasts. We also strengthened our social media community by establishing a core group of experts to work on our activities with the platforms.

@ Chris Pouw

@ BBC

Eurovision Services S.A. is a wholly owned EBU subsidiary that connects sports federations and major event organizers with EBU Member and non-member broadcast organizations.

Our service portfolio is designed to help our customers maximize the value of their content and ensure that it is delivered to the right audience on the right platform.

EUROVISION SERVICES

© Kris Pouw

KEY SERVICES

CONTRIBUTE & DISTRIBUTE

Our core business is the distribution of live broadcastquality signals from venues to broadcasters in any destination over the worldclass Eurovision Global Network. We coordinate the transmissions for some of the world’s biggest global sports events and have unparalleled experience in this field.

Eurovision Services enjoyed a very successful year providing broadcast services for some of the world’s biggest sports events and winning significant new business.

Eurovision Services had to make difficult decisions in 2020, due to the effects of the COVID-19 crisis, but it has emerged stronger and can now look to the future with confidence. Watch an Introductory video from CEO Marco Tinnirello.

REACH ONLINE

We have a range of solutions backed by the security and reliability of the Eurovision Global Network that help our customers reach their audiences on digital platforms, including white label streaming and videoon-demand solutions. The introduction of SRT gateways on the Eurovision Global Network gives us greater flexibility to scale up our IP delivery solutions to meet growing demand.

PERSONALIZE AND REGIONALIZE

The COVID-19 pandemic has naturally led to greater demand for solutions that allow broadcasters more flexibility for remote operations. To keep pace with this we have extended our service offer to include remote commentary for live broadcast and streaming. Furthermore, our Content Hub offering is constantly evolving to give content owners greater flexibility in packaging their content and to offer broadcasters more options for self-provisioning.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

In the last year we have launched a range of new services including:

BISS-CA encryption on satellite transmissions for top-tier live sports events. BISS-CA is a secure and interoperable conditional access standard that uses dynamic keys.

We’ve implemented two geographically separate SRT gateways to support several new services for transport streams over IP with a secure SRT wrapper.

To keep pace with the increased demand for remote operations, we’ve launched a remote commentary service that allows commentators to synchronize broadcastquality commentary with a live video signal from a remote location.

Corporate

Services have continued to drive down costs and make efficiencies to ensure we are delivering good value for our Members.

The EBU employs 468.8 staff worldwide (permanent and temporary positions) at its HQ in Geneva and in its worldwide branches and subsidiaries.

The EBU are committed to attracting and retaining the very best talent irrespective of gender. Last year we were pleased to be the first public media organization to be EQUAL-SALARY certified. We have also joined the BBC’s 50:50 Equality Project to ensure better gender-balance across our events.

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

BALANCE SHEET

The overall value of the EBU (Consolidated) Balance Sheet at the end of 2020 was CHF 10.9m lower than at 31 December 2019, owing mainly to a decrease in current Work in Progress (WIP) relating to sports rights, as well as lower Accounts Receivable and Accrued Revenues. This was partially offset by increases in non-current Received in Advance (RIA) and Work in Progress (WIP). The reclassification of deferred income between current and non-current liabilities was due to changes in competition dates relating to important sports rights.

On the liability side, the decrease in Accounts Payable furthermore reduced the net cash position by CHF 11.5m.

General Reserves decreased by CHF 11.2m. The decrease is mainly due to the allocation of CHF 9.0m to the membership fees earmarked reserve and CHF 1.0m to the exchange rate fluctuation earmarked reserve.

STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES

In 2020 the EBU does not reach its Comparable Surplus target of CHF 4.2m at consolidated level, ending the year at -27,9m, in line with what was forecasted in October:

SHARED SERVICES

At the end of 2020, Shared Services are in line with original budget, with a global annual spend of CHF 22.0 m split as follows:

Shared Governance: 0.8m

Shared Legal: 1.9m

HR: 2.6m

Supporting Services: Finance 3.7m, IT 4.9m, Facilities 6.2m and Supporting Services Management (incl. Corporate Security) 1.1m

Other Shared Services (Subsidiaries): 0.8m

Shared Services are fully charged to Eurovision Services SA based on an annual budgeted (i.e. fixed) recharge. The balance is then allocated to EBU Member Services through allocation keys based on services consumption. Therefore, any variation against budget is mostly (85%) absorbed by EBU Member Services.

EBU MEMBER SERVICES

In 2020 Member Services deliver a Comparable Surplus of 3.3m, 2.6m better than their annual Budget of 0.7m (or 2.5m better than Forecast 2):

Permanent Services: CHF 3.2m, which was CHF 1.4m below budget, notably due to higher staff costs, larger provisions for doubtful debtors and a change in the Shared Services allocation between Media and Media User-Pay to better reflect actual usage of Shared Services (neutral at consolidated level).

Permanent Services: -2.0m, which is -1.1 below budget, notably due to higher Staff Costs (-0.9m) and a higher Bad Debt provision (-0.2)

Mandatory Services: 2.4m, which is -0.8m lower than Budget and fully in line with Forecast: the News Exchange delivers the expected bottom line, while Eurovision Sport ends 2020 -0.6m below Budget, reflecting a lower Gross Margin as well as an increased Provision for

Bad Debts and reduced Brokerage commission from Eurovision Services, compensated by the usage of Earmarked Reserve to reach break-even.

User-Pay Services: 0.7m, 2.5m better than Budget thanks to the Surplus generated by Eurovision Family of Events with the cancellation of the ESC 2020 and the related transfer by the host broadcaster (NPO) of a 4m-financial guarantee, as well as the recognition of past years royalties. On the other hand, Eurovision News report a loss of -2.5m induced by the cancellation of most Events planned in 2020.

Eurovision Sport – Sales report a Statutory Result of -0.4m, which is 0.8m better than Budget due to the cancellation of several major loss-making sports events. Usage of Earmarked Reserve fully offsets the loss to reach break-even.

Group Services: 2.2m, fully in line with Budget: the downside registered by the Brand Royalties income paid by Eurovision Services is compensated by the renegotiation of rental costs for our EAI Washington subsidiary.

EUROVISION SERVICES

For their second year as a separate commercial entity, Eurovision Services has unfortunately had to face the most disrupting crisis ever. Lockdowns and sanitary constraints have forced Sports and Cultural-related Events to be either cancelled or postponed, thus drastically impacting Eurovision Services’ revenue by CHF 62m compared

to budgeted revenue. Although actions, and notably Network contracts re-negotiation, were undertaken, Operational expenses did not reduce in the same proportion (-23m), resulting in a Gross Margin CHF 36.3m lower than Budget. Depreciation, which needs to be considered as a total of Operational Depreciation and General Depreciation, varies by -0.6m versus Budget due to year-end assets write-offs.

Running costs such as Travels, Conferences and Fees were reduced both in Geneva and in ES subsidiaries. A broader re-organisation plan was implemented as well, to limit the losses, also leading to accelerating and increasing the existing Madrid-nearshoring plan foreseen in 2021. However, cash-flow difficulties of Eurovision Services customers led to concerns regarding clients’ payment and resulted in the necessity to provide an additional 1.2m against potential bad debtors.

Although the situation stabilized and Sport Events resumed towards the Autumn, Eurovision Services still suffered from an extremely low activity as far as Broadcast Services (Unis/OSS, Turnarounds & Space Segments, Tailor-Made) are concerned (see details in relevant section), resulting in a 2020 global Loss of -31.2m.

CASH-FLOW STATEMENT

The negative net cash flow from operating activities in 2020 is mainly due to the loss of business services activities, the increase of Work in Progress (WIP) and the decrease in net account payables (largely due to the timing of cash inflows and outflows relating to the major sports events within the year and the related payments).

STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES

For the year ended For the year ended

All Figures in '000 CHF 31.12.2020 31.12.2019

Sales of Rights 105,760 156’502 Network Sales 63,202 94’364

Contributions from Members 29,595 30’084 Other Revenues 51,152 65’689

Operating Income 249,709 346’639

Acquisition of Rights (96,117) (136’585)

(Charge) / Release of Impairments (1,310) 148

Network Expenses (45,751) (48’735)

Operations Expenses (14,758) (27’895)

Employee Benefit Expenses (75,827) (79’758)

Travel Expenses (1,682) (4’479) Fees (12,391) (14’758)

Depreciation of Fixed Assets (17,048) (17’465) Provisions for Doubtful Debtors (2,567) (1’520)

Other Expenses (15,380) (18’774) Operating Expenses (282,831) (349’821)

Surplus / (Loss) from Operations (33,122) (3’182)

Net Financial Result (91) (406)

Surplus / (Loss) for the Year before Taxation (33,213) (3’588) Income Taxes (83) (45)

Net Surplus / (Loss) for the Year (33,296) (3’633)

Note on proposed allocation of earmarked reserves

Earmarked Reserves were previously increased in anticipation of certain specific costs and charges arising in 2019 and 2020. They stand in relation to the net income (loss) for those years as follows:

2020 2019

Net Income / (Loss) for the Year (33,296) (3’633)

Reserves earmarked against specific costs and charges 5,442 5’270 Surplus for the year before costs and charges covered by Earmarked Reserves 27,854 1’637

BALANCE SHEET

All Figures in '000 CHF 31.12.2020 31.12.2019

ASSETS

Current Assets

Cash and Cash Equivalents 90,388 101’867

Accounts Receivable and Accrued Revenues 77,700 88’749

Work in ProgressShort Term 25,029 32’345 Other Short Term Assets 7,964 13’977 Financial Assets 2,280 5’316 Total Current Assets 203,361 242’254

Non-Current Assets

Work in ProgressLong Term 114,164 78’459 Other Long Term Assets 2,108 4’367

Tangible Assets Net 37,484 40’802 Intangible Assets Net 21,068 23’212 Total Non-Current Assets 174,824 146’840

All Figures in '000 CHF 31.12.2020 31.12.2019

LIABILITIES

Current Liabilities

Accounts Payable and Accrued Expenses 93,450 109’901 Received in AdvanceShort Term 40,862 40’301 Short Term Financial Liabilities 1,492 3’843 Bank loans 3,005Other Short Term Liabilities 6,174 16’257 Total Current Liabilities 144,983 170’302

Non-Current Liabilities

Received in AdvanceLong Term 106,427 63’347

Bank Loans 9,000Other Long Term liabilities and provisions 2,856 3’546 Total Non-Current Liabilities 118,283 66’893

Association's Equity

Total Assets 378,185 389,094

CASH-FLOW STATEMENT

General Reserves 94,380 105’564 Earmarked Reserves 54,420 49’859 Surplus / (Loss) for the Year (33,296) (3’633) Cumulative Translation Adjustment (585) 109 Total Equity 114,919 151’899 Total liabilities and equity 378,185 389’094

All Figures in '000 CHF 31.12.2020 31.12.2019

Cash Flow from operating activities

Net Surplus / (Loss) (33,296) (3’633) Depreciation 17,048 17’469

Interest Income (394) (606)

Provision / (Reversal) for Doubtful Debtors 2,567 1’520

Decrease / (Increase) in Debtors and other Receivables 16,756 8’503

Decrease in Work In Progress (28,389) 359

Increase / (Decrease) in Creditors and other Payables (27,225) (16’840) (Decrease) / Increase in Received in Advance 43,642 3’473

Net Cash Flow from / (used in) Operating Activities (9,291) 10’245

Cash Flow from investing Activities

Tangible Assets Acquisition (6,278) (10’635)

Tangible Assets Disposals 757 356

Intangible Assets Acquisition (6,351) (7’669) Intangible Assets Disposals 233 1’040

Interest Received 441 594

Net Cash Flow used in Investing Activities (11,198) (16’314)

Effects of exchange rate changes on the balance of cash held in foreign currencies (644) (3’381)

Net Variation in Cash & Cash Equivalents (21,133) (9’450)

Cash & Cash Equivalents at Beginning of Period 98,024 107’474

Cash & Cash Equivalents at End of Period 76,891 98’024

Net Variation in Cash & Cash Equivalents (21,133) (9’450)

ANNEXES

OUR MEMBERS & ASSOCIATES

LIST OF COMMITTEES & EXPERTS GROUP MEMBERS

OUR MEMBERS & ASSOCIATES

MEMBERS

ALBANIA

Radiotelevisione Shqiptar (RTSH)

ALGERIA

Établissement public de Télévision Algérienne (EPTV) Établissement National de Radiodiffusion Sonore (EPRS) Télédiffusion d’Algérie (TDA)

ANDORRA

Ràdio i Televisió d’Andorra, S.A. (RTVA)

ARMENIA

Public Television & Radio Armenia (AMPTV), comprising: - Public Television of Armenia - Public Radio of Armenia

AUSTRIA

Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF)

AZERBAIJAN

Ictimai (ICTI/ITV)

BELARUS

National State Teleradiocompany of the Republic of Belarus (BTRC)

BELGIUM

Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep (VRT) Radio-Télévision Belge de la Communauté française (RTBF)

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

Radiotelevizija Bosne i Hercegovine (BHRT)

BULGARIA

Bâlgarsko Nacionalno Radio (BNR)

Bâlgarska Nacionalna Televizija (BNT)

CROATIA

Hrvatska Radiotelevizija (HRT)

CYPRUS

Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)

CZECH REPUBLIC

Český Rozhlas (CR) Česka Televize (CT)

DENMARK

DR (DR) TV2/Denmark (DK/TV2)

EGYPT

National Media Authority (NMA)

ESTONIA

Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR)

FINLAND

Oy Yleisradio Ab (Yle)

FRANCE

Europe 1 (E1) Groupement des Radiodiffuseurs français de l’UER, comprising: - FranceTélévisions (France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5 and Réseau France Outremer) - Radio France - France Médias Monde (RFI, France 24, Monte Carlo Doualiya)

GEORGIA

Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB)

GERMANY

Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (ARD), comprising: - Bayerischer Rundfunk - Hessischer Rundfunk - Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk - Norddeutscher Rundfunk - Radio Bremen - Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg Saarlandischer Rundfunk - Südwestrundfunk - Westdeutscher Rundfunk - Deutsche Welle - Deutschlandradio

Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)

GREECE

Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT)

HUNGARY

Hungarian Media Group (HMG), comprising: - Media Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA), - Duna Media Service Provider

ICELAND

Ríkisútvarpid (RUV)

IRELAND

Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTE) TGA (TGA)

ISRAEL

Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC)

ITALY

Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI)

JORDAN

Jordan Radio & Television Corporation (JRTV)

LATVIA

Latvijas Radio (LR) Latvijas Televizija (LT)

LEBANON

Télé-Liban (TL)

LIBYA

Libya National Channel (LNC)

LITHUANIA

Lietuvos Radijas ir Televizija (LRT)

LUXEMBOURG

CLT Multi Media (CLT)

Établissement de Radiodiffusion Socioculturelle du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg (ERSL)

MALTA

Public Broadcasting Services Ltd. (PBS)

MOLDOVA

Teleradio-Moldova (TRM)

MONACO

Groupement de Radiodiffusion monégasque (GRMC), comprising: - Radio Monte-Carlo, - Télé Monte, - Carlo-Monaco Média Diffusion

MOROCCO

Société Nationale de Radio Télévision (SNRT)

MONTENEGRO

Radiotelevizija Crne Gore (RTCG)

NETHERLANDS

Nederlandse Publieke Omroep (NPO), comprising: - Vereniging AVROTROS - Omroepvereniging BNN-VARA - Vereniging De Evangelische Omroep (EO) - Omroep MAX - Vereniging KRO-NCRV - Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) - NTR - Omroepvereniging VPRO

NORTH MACEDONIA

MKRTV (MKRTV)

NORWAY

Norsk Rikskringkasting (NRK) TV 2 AS (TV2)

POLAND

Polskie Radio i Telewizja (PRT), comprising: - Polskie Radio SA (PR) - Telewizja Polska SA (TVP)

PORTUGAL

Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP)

ROMANIA

Societatea Română de Radiodifuziune (ROR) Societatea Română de Televiziune (TVR)

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Channel One Russia (C1R) Radio Dom Ostankino (RDO), comprising: - Radio Mayak (MK) - Radio Orpheus (OP) Rossijskoe Teleradio (RTR)

SAN MARINO

San Marino RTV (RTV)

SERBIA

Radiotelevizija Srbije (RTS)

SLOVAKIA

Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska (RTVS)

SLOVENIA

Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTVSLO)

SPAIN

Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE)

SWEDEN

Sveriges Television och Radio Grupp (STR), comprising; - Sveriges Television AB (SVT) - Sveriges Radio AB (SR) - Swedish Educational - Broadcasting Company (UR)

SWITZERLAND

Schweizerische Radio und Fernsehgesellschaft (SRG/SSR)

TUNISIA

Radio tunisienne et Télévision tunisienne (RTTT), comprising: - Radio tunisienne - Télévision tunisienne

TURKEY

Türkiye Radyo-Televizyon Kurumu (TRT)

UKRAINE

Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (UA:PBC)

UNITED KINGDOM

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

United Kingdom Independent Broadcasting (UKIB), comprising:

Independent Television: The Network Centre, grouping: - ITV Anglia Television - ITV Border Television - ITV Central Television - Channel Television - ITV Granada Television STV Central - ITV Wales Television - ITV West Television - ITV London Television - ITV Meridian Television - STV North - ITV Tyne Tees Television - UTV Limited - ITV Westcountry Television - ITV Yorkshire Television - Channel 4 - Sianel 4 Cymru

VATICAN STATE Radio Vaticana (RV)

ASSOCIATES

AUSTRALIA

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Free TV Australia (Free) Special Broadcasting Service Corporation (SBS)

BANGLADESH

Bangladesh Television (BTV)

BRAZIL

Rádio Cultura (RC)

CANADA

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Société Radio Canada (CBC)

CHILE

Corporación de Televisión de la Universidad Católica de Chile (Canal 13) (UCCTV)

CHINA

China Central Television (CCTV) Shanghai Media Group (SMG)

CUBA

Instituto Cubano de Radio y Televisión (ICRT)

GEORGIA

Rustavi 2 (RB) Teleimedi (TEME)

HONG KONG

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)

IRAN

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)

JAPAN

Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK)

TBS Television Inc. Tokyo FM Broadcasting Co. Ltd (TFM)

KAZAKHSTAN

Khabar Agency (KA)

KOREA (REPUBLIC OF)

Korean Broadcasting System (KBS)

MALAYSIA

Radio Television Malaysia (RTM)

MAURITIUS

Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC)

NEW ZEALAND

Radio New Zealand (RNZ) Television New Zealand Ltd (TVNZ)

OMAN

Public Authority for Radio and TV (PART)

SOUTH AFRICA

South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)

SYRIA

Organisme de la RadioTélévision Arabe Syrienne (ORTAS)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

American Public Media (APM)

Capital Cities/American Broadcasting Companies Inc. (ABC)

CBS Corporation (CBS) National Broadcasting Company Inc. (NBC)

National Public Radio (NPR) WFMT Radio Network (WFMT)

APPROVED PARTICIPANTS

ARTE

Catalunya Música (CAT) EuroNews

Public Enterprise National Broadcasting-Skopje (Javno Pretprijatie Nacionalna Radiodifuzija-Skopje) (North Macedonia) (MKNRD)

Cellnex Telecom, S.A. (formerly Albertis Telecom Terrestre, S.L.) (CELLNEX)

Russian TV & Radio Broadcasting Network (RTRN) TV5

OUR COMMITTEES & EXPERT GROUP MEMBERS

GOVERNING COMMITTEES

DIGITAL COMMITTEE

Chair

João Pedro Galveias (RTP)

Vice Chairs

Aoife Byrne (RTÉ)

Tomas Granryd (SR)

Members

Ričardas Baltaduonis (LRT)

Oana Gherghe (TVR)

Ignacio Gomez (RTVE)

Sebastian Marcolin (Rai)

Anne-Paule Martin (SRG SSR/ RTS)

Jukka Niva (Yle)

Anvar Samost (ERR)

Eric Scherer (France Télévisions)

Eleanor Van Heyningen (BBC)

Patrick Weinhold (ARD)

EBU ACADEMY COMMITTEE

Chair

Frédéric Olivier (RTBF)

Members

Christina Johannesson (SVT)

Daniela Pomo (RAI)

Eduard Traian Nicolau (TVR)

Brigitta Nickelsen (Radio Bremen)

Jean Chretien (France Télévisions University)

Nela Gudelj (HRT)

Jenny McCulloch (BBC Academy)

Andreas Heindl (ORF)

Ebru Aybars (TRT)

Irena Lazarova (BNR)

HUMAN RESOURCES

STEERING COMMITTEE

Members

Eija Hakakari (YLE)

Therese Oestling-Waller (SVT)

Maria Helena Pereira (RTP)

Kurt Schumacher (ARD/WDR)

Christine Thiran (RTBF)

INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING COMMITTEE

Chair

Simona Martorelli (RAI)

Members

Xiaoying Zhang (DW)

Bärbel Moser (France Médias Monde)

Nathalie Bobineau (France Télévisions)

Kazimir Bacic (HRT)

Eugen Cojocariu (Radio

Romania International)

Zlatan Begovic (RTS) Maria Jesus Perez (RTVE)

LEGAL AND POLICY COMMITTEE

Chair Olav Nyhus, NRK (Norway)

Vice Chair

Simona Martorelli, RAI (Italy)

Members

Camille Auvret (GRF/RF)

Kirsi Brück (YLE)

Jürgen Burggraf (ARD)

Sokol Gjoshi (RTSH)

Nathalie Léger (GRF/FT)

Josef Lusser (ORF)

Elene Mikhailova (GPB)

MIlen Mitev (BNR)

Alan Morrison (STR/SR)

Veronica Ollé Sesé (RTVE)

Micol Rigo (RAI)

Kate Saunders (BBC)

Balàzs Stella (HMG/MTVA)

Ronald Vecht (NPO)

Peter Weber (ZDF)

Krzysztof Wojciechowski (PRT/TVP)

NEWS COMMITTEE

Chair

Balon-Perin Benoît (RTBF)

Vice-Chairs

Gomez-Bueno Asun (RTVE)

Solinas Giuseppe (RAI)

Zilken-Leitgeb Petra (ZDF)

Members

Bal Geertje (VRT)

Kandemir Pinar (TRT World)

Lowe Eimear (RTE)

Mitschitz Andreas (ORF)

Radulescu-Vochin Madalina (TVR)

Soula Samah (FRTV)

Taubert Krista (YLE) Ward-Lilley Sarah (BBC) Wegener Michael (ARD)

RADIO COMMITTEE

Chair

Graham Ellis (BBC)

Vice Chairs

Philippa De Roten (RTS)

René Zavoral (CR) Serge Schick (France Médias Monde)

Members

Andrea Borgnino (RAI)

Giedrius Masalskis (LRT)

Dan Santa (ROR)

Frédéric Gerand (RTBF)

Elsa Comby (Radio France) Zorana Bojicic (RTS) Javier Sanchez (RTVE) Gabriel Bystrom (SR) Mirko Stular (RTVSLO) Maria Kozakou (ERT)

SPORT COMMITTEE

ExBo representative Petr Dvorak (CT)

Chair Runar Østmo (NRK)

Vice Chairs

Yolanda Garcia Cuevas (TVE)

Jan Olsson (SVT)

Marek Szkolnikowski (TVP) Natalia Tolkacheva (RTR)

Members

Michael Amsinck (ZDF)

Dávid Székely (MTVA)

Richard Armstrong (BBC)

Adrian Boss (SSR)

Pavel Bulatski (BTRC)

Vladimir Drbohlav (CT)

Pier Francsco Forleo (RAI)

Christa Kurzweil (ZDF)

Frédéric Prallet-Dujols (FT)

Laurent-Eric Le Lay (FT)

Declan McBennet (RTE)

David Naert (VRT)

Richard Parkes (BBC)

Maria Cristina Sandor (RAI)

Michaela Wulfers (ARD) Adrian Fikentscher (ARD)

TV COMMITTEE

Chair

Markus Sterky (SVT)

Vice Chairs

Ana Maria Bordas (RTVE)

Natalija Gorscak (RTVSLO)

Dermot Horan (RTE)

Ekaterina Orlova (RTR)

Members

Manuel Alduy (FTV)

Gaelle Armentano-Conte (RAI)

Frank-Dieter Freiling (ZDF)

Faruk Güven (TRT)

Maria Koufopoulou (ERT)

Marek Solon-Lipinski (TVP)

Matt Travers (BBC)

Bakel Walden (SSR SRG)

TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

Chair

Judy Parnall (BBC)

Vice Chairs

Olli Sipilä (YLE)

Michael Eberhard (ARD/SWR)

Members

Gino Alberico (RAI)

Kazimir Bacic (HRT)

Per Björkman (SVT)

Frédéric Brochard (FTV)

Galina Fedorova (RTR)

Karl Petermichl (ORF)

Thomas Saner (SRG SSR)

Michael Nugent (ERT)

Sinan Soyturk (TRT)

Brian Wynne (RTÉ)

EXPERT GROUPS

ACE Bureau

AI and Data Group

Access Services Experts Ars Acustica Group

Classical Music Group Communications Directors Group

Contact Engineers Group Content Regulation Group

Copyright Group Culture Group

Data Protection Officers’ Group

Digital Storytelling Labs EBU Connect Steering Group Editorial Subcommittee

Erfurt Exchange Experts Group

European Digital Radio Alliance Eurosonic Group Eurovision Debate Editorial Board

Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group Features Group Finance Group Folk Music Group Formats Core Group

Future of Work Group Gender Equality Steering Group

International Relations Radio Group

Jazz Producers

Junior Eurovision Song Contest Steering Group Kids News Group (YNE) Legal and Policy Distribution Group

Media Steering Group New Radio News IDEAS

Notturno Group Platform (Business) Regulation Group

Public Service Media Funding and Governance Group

Public Service Media Future Leaders Group

Radio Drama Group Radio Sport Group

Radio and Audio News Group

Social Media Group

Sports/Legal Group Statutes Group

TV Children and Youth Experts

TV Documentary Experts

TV Fiction Experts

TV Intercultural and Diversity Group

TV Music Reference Group

TV Science and Knowledge Experts

VOX - Voice User Interfaces Group

Women Executives in Media

Women’s Sport Expert Group World Music Group

PHOTO CREDITS

GettyImages: page 4, 12, 28, 29, 36

Kris Pouw: page 6, 7, 23

Eric Martensson/Special Olympics: page 15

EBU: page 8, 22, 23, 36

BBC: 23

Fotolia: page 11

ES: 24, 25, 26

Unsplash: 27